Accommodations and the Common-Core Assessments

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 3 to 4 p.m. ET
Click here for more information about this chat.

Note: No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in any of our text-based chats.Participants may begin submitting questions the morning of the chat.

Accommodations and the Common-Core Assessments

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 3 to 4 p.m. ET

Sponsored by:

The common-core tests being developed by two state consortia—PARCC and Smarter Balanced—offer the promise of more inclusion and self-sufficiency for students with special needs and English-language learners. However, the two assessment groups have chosen to offer some critical accommodations quite differently—most notably the read-aloud accommodation, also known as text-to-speech.

In this chat, accessibility experts who have worked on the consortia’s common-core assessments answered questions about the support features available and how they’re best used for students with special needs and ELLs. They also discussed the many ways the computer-based exams will change the testing experience for students and improvements they hope to make down the road.

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.

The Fine Print

All questions are screened by an edweek.org editor prior to posting. A question is not displayed until the moderator poses it to the guest(s). Due to the volume of questions received, we cannot guarantee that
all questions will be answered, or answered in the order of submission. Guests and hosts may decline to answer any questions. Concise questions are strongly encouraged.

Please be sure to include your name when posting your question.

Edweek.org's Live Chat is an open forum where readers can participate in a give- and-take
discussion with a variety of guests. Edweek.org reserves the right to condense or edit questions for clarity, but editing is kept to a minimum. Transcripts may also be reproduced in some form in our print edition. We do not correct errors in
spelling, punctuation, etc. In addition, we remove statements that have the potential to be
libelous or to slander someone.
Please read our privacy policy and user agreement if you have questions.